Tuesday, 26 November 2013

George Younger Strong and Scotch Ales 1950 - 1955

This is something I've just especially written for my new book Strong! I'm a post short for next week, so I'm going to cheat and use it on the blog, too.

Here we have a good chance to see some of the history of Scotch Ale. I don’t mean the type sold in Scotland, but those brewed for the Belgian market.

In the 20th century, Belgium was a big importer of British beer. After the gravity drop in Britain caused by WW I, this was usually specially brewed for the Belgian market. In reality, they were much like the beers sold in Britain before WW I.

These beers show us the difference in strength between beers for domestic sale and those for the Belgian market, as well as the different naming. In Scotland, it was marketed as Strong Ale, in Belgium Scotch Ale.

The Gordon’s brand is still around, though it’s now brewed in Belgium. Which means one of George Younger’s brands has lived on more than 50 years after the brewery closed. Actually, it’s not the only one of their brands that’s still knocking around. For they were also the original brewer of Sweetheart Stout.

Younger’s Scotch Ale and Strong Ale look like versions of the same beer, just with the domestic version a good bit weaker. Oh, and the colour, too. Strong Ale is a dark brown, while the Scotch Ale is on the border of dark amber and pale brown. But that doesn’t mean a different recipe was used. The colour probably just comes from a caramel addition somewhere late in the brewing process.

George Younger Strong and Scotch Ales 1950 - 1955

Year

Beer

Style

Price

size

package

Acidity

FG

OG

colour

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

1950

Gordon Highland
Scotch Ale

Scotch Ale

bottled

0.90

1031.1

1091.2

1 + 40

7.81

65.90%

1950

Gordon Xmas Ale
(bottled in Antwerp)

Scotch Ale

bottled

0.10

1032.3

1090.7

2 + 40

7.58

64.39%

1952

Gordon Highland
Scotch Ale

Scotch Ale

bottled

0.08

1026.5

1081.8

2.5 + 40

7.19

67.60%

1953

Strong Ale

Strong Ale

14.5d

nip

bottled

0.06

1021.9

1067.6

13 + 40

5.93

67.60%

1954

Gordon Highland
Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)

Scotch Ale

bottled

0.06

1028

1090.9

60

8.20

69.20%

1955

Strong Ale

Strong Ale

15d

nip

bottled

0.05

1022.3

1067.6

100

5.87

67.01%

1955

Gordon Highland
Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)

Scotch Ale

bottled

0.07

1029.9

1090.3

55

7.86

66.89%

Sources:

Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the
Scottish Brewing Archive

Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/002 held at the
London Metropolitan Archives

From the brewing records I’ve seen, Scottish brewers rarely used coloured malts, except in Stout. And I know some Scottish brewers had multiple versions of the same beer coloured with caramel to different shades, depending on where the beer was going to be sold. That’s also how they managed to parti-gyle 60/- with 70/- and 80/- even though 60/- was much darker – basically like Dark Mild – than the other two.

Sorry to be pedantic: didn’t we establish that the Gordon brand actually belonged to John Martin, not George Younger? Hence John Martin being able to take it to Edinburgh and then Belgium when first George Younger and then Fountainbridge closed.